What is Assets. United. 2.0?
‘Assets. United.’ was launched by Brightly Software, a Siemens Company, in February 2024. The purpose of this campaign was to help local authorities deal with the pressing issues that are faced in the management of deteriorating assets, where there are budget and resource constraints.
This campaign highlighted the connected nature of assets and the need for an efficient, integrated, and proactive approach to asset management.
Assets. United. introduced a clear plan: one partner, one system and one way to manage all the assets that the council is responsible for.
Two years on, Assets. United. is now Assets. United 2.0. This next phase focuses on assisting councils to fully manage and unlock the value of their asset data, and be able to do this across each unique asset class they manage daily.
A unified approach to asset management
Local councils in the UK are facing a range of challenges, from ageing road networks to rising repair costs, shrinking budgets and growing public frustration – all of which pile pressure on day-to-day operations. They are spending too much time collating data, often using spreadsheets and other manual processes when managing their assets. Spending significant time on data only further delays issues, leading asset management to become largely reactive, which causes delays, reduces efficient decision-making, and reduces public confidence. It can also lead to issues with appropriate investment, with budgets continually allocated to reactive repairs rather than long term improvements.
Assets. United. 2.0 builds on the original campaign by showing how a unified approach to asset data can transform these workflows. Instead of reacting to failures, councils gain the ability to monitor performance, identify trends and intervene earlier.
Brightly’s Confirm Enterprise Asset Management Software is at the core of Assets. United. 2.0. What makes Confirm the best asset management system for infrastructure on the market? You get industry-leading mobility, centralisation, and reporting all in a single, cloud-based platform.
Confirm allows its users to manage their assets effectively by identifying priorities and addressing issues before they escalate, and allows the budget to be allocated strategically where they will deliver.
One system. Multiple assets
Local councils manage a range of assets, and each asset class present various challenges, requirements and risks. Assets. United. 2.0 therefore allows councils to effectively manage multiple assets, all while being connected to one system.
The asset classes covered include:
Street lighting
Confirm offers a platform to manage all street lighting data, eliminating the need for multiple systems and creating one source of truth for assets and maintenance. One of the main benefits is the mobile access that enables field crews to view work orders and asset information in real time, increasing efficiency for inspections and repairs. GIS-enabled maps and inspection routes also help planners define inspection frequencies and maintenance tasks.
Bridges & structures
Confirm records inspection and maintenance data centrally, supporting reliable condition tracking for bridges and structures. Data-enabled prioritisation, in which condition data and reporting tools help identify critical bridge defects, is a key benefit enabling better prioritisation of maintenance work.
Highways
Confirm helps monitor and control assets with preventive maintenance and real-time field data access. Pre-defined dashboards and reports give highway teams a complete view of asset performance and budget impacts.
Grounds & parks
Confirm provides a single, cloud-based platform to manage all parks and grounds assets (parks, playgrounds, sports fields, street furniture, trees, and amenities), creating one source of truth for maintenance and inspections. Some of the benefits include: enhanced field productivity, in which mobile access enables grounds crews to receive work orders, record inspections, and update asset conditions in real time, improving efficiency for routine maintenance and reactive tasks.
Drainage & blockage
Confirm centralises all drainage assets into a single registry, improving visibility and enabling faster responses to blockages and defects. Confirm’s centralised data supports analysis of asset performance trends, enabling proactive maintenance and reducing reactive workload. Field crews can capture and update drainage inspection and maintenance data via mobile devices, reducing data lag and improving operational efficiency. Additionally, Confirm’s centralised data supports analysis of asset performance trends, enabling proactive maintenance and reducing reactive workload.
With a connected platform, councils gain a clearer view of their assets and can prioritise preventative maintenance to reduce long-term risk.
Transitioning to predictive maintenance
Many local councils are prone to reactive maintenance for their assets, which leads to issues in budgets, public frustration and an overall lack of efficiency. There is an over-dependence on spreadsheets, which limits the ability of local authorities to effectively plan capital expenditure and preventative maintenance. A smart, dedicated tool, addressing asset challenges before they arise, is the answer.
At Brightly, we provide councils with smart tools to break that reactive maintenance cycle to deliver a proactive methodology that moves away from a worst-first approach where all your funds are spent on a few expensive schemes, and you can’t keep up with a deteriorating network.
Taking potholes as an example, councils typically manage pothole repairs on a reactive basis, but too often, these repairs last little more than a few years. This results not only in funds being poorly spent, but in the public resentment and distrust.
Proactive interventions in highways repairs are saving local councils substantial sums by allowing them to assess where potholes are most at risk of appearing (based on historic data and predictive models), and carrying out regular preventive maintenance to stop them from appearing in the first place.
With Assets. United. 2.0, councils can still use spreadsheets for ad-hoc analysis, but they can also go much further; they can forecast conditions and build a plan covering multiple years, bring asset classes together and enable cross-asset trade-offs. This allows them to foresee multiple issues and act pre-emptively, rather than reactively, ultimately reducing costs by addressing problems before they arise.
Ultimately, this approach enables strategic decision-making by analysing multitudes of data on community requirements, budgets, historic outcomes and more.
- Risks can be assessed based on numerous factors, from regulations to environmental effects, to community size, traffic flows and infrastructure features. In addition, potential strategies for risk mitigation can be modelled and analysed.
- Budgets can be pre-planned and allocated for maximum long-term effectiveness, enabling councils to prioritise projects based on urgency, ROI and the impact they will have on the community.
- Budgets can be assessed to determine the best mix of capital and maintenance investment so that the optimum totex spend can be implemented.
- Carbon-efficient solutions can be evaluated and considered based on their cost, environmental impact and risk.
- The delivery of public services can be optimised by investing in technology and systems that improve the efficiency of the process.
- Councils can engage with their communities to find out their needs and requirements, as well as explaining their reasons for carrying out works, the methods being used and expected completion dates. This improves transparency and trust.
Assets. United. 2.0 builds on the foundations set by Assets. United. by showing how a connected system brings asset data together across a full range of assets managed by local councils.
Councils gain the visibility and insight required to manage ageing infrastructure more effectively, by reducing risk and having the ability to strategically allocate budgets/make better use of limited resources.
The goal is clear. Make asset management seamless, efficient and accurate.
As more councils are implementing Assets. United. 2.0, it is clear that there is a shift towards strategic decision-making, a more sustainable and smart approach to asset management.
To learn more about Assets. United., visit: https://www.brightlysoftware.com/assets-united